The goal of the format is to be easily readable by humans as well
as computers. It is aimed for use in interpreted languages like
Python or Matlab, but it can be used in any language that supports
the seven datatypes listed below.

SSDF has similar goals as JSON, but also enables
(relatively) efficient storing of binary data and is much easier to read.

Application

SSDF is well suited for storing scientific data, and provides a way to create a datastore
that can be opened and edited with any text editor. SSDF is also very suitable for configuration files or ini-like files.

One spec, two formats

Since version 2.0, ssdf actually consists of two formats: the text format, and a binary format which is fully compatible. The binary format is more efficient and uses compression on the whole file (the text format only compresses arrays). It is more suited
for storing really large databases or structures containing large arrays.